


and i'll tell you how

by orphan_account



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-24
Updated: 2012-07-24
Packaged: 2017-11-10 14:28:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/467336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt #94 - foreign: 5 times Conner held a conversation in another language and one time he was completely stumped</p>
            </blockquote>





	and i'll tell you how

**Author's Note:**

> Part of a prompt challenge on Tumblr.
> 
> Takes place at random times in the show. Italicized speech is supposed to represent the language they're speaking.

When Kaldur rejoined the Team again, he spent the majority of his time working with Conner and M’gann, attempting to regain their trust after the years of secret undercover work. It had taken less time with M’gann. Conner was still wary.

After one particular mission, the two male members of the team were conversing in a different language. M’gann waved at the two of them and went in a different direction, leaving them to speak privately.

“What are they saying?” Gar asked, approaching her.

She shrugged her shoulders and replied, “They’re speaking in Atlantean. They used to do it all the time back when we were younger.”

“Superboy can speak Atlantean?” Robin asked, eyebrow raised above his sunglasses.

As if on cue, both boys laughed heartily, completely engrossed in their private joke.

Cassie sighed and said, “Must be nice to be able to speak privately in another language. Oooh! Jaime, let’s make up our own language so we can do that too!”

“Uhhh, I’m cool with just knowing Spanish, Cassie. I can teach you, if you want… Madre de- She is NOT a threat, stop suggesting I vaporize her!” he said, muttering the last part of his sentence.

“Who’s suggesting you vaporize me? Pah, as if you could,” she said, practically scandalized at the notion.

“No, I didn’t mean th-“

 _“Think he’ll be able to finally be able to flirt back without interference from the Scarab?”_ Conner asked in perfect Atlantean.

 _“Who knows? But for now, it is quite entertaining to watch,”_ Kaldur said, smiling softly at the younger members of the team.

_“They are pretty fun  to watch. Bart should be here in a few minutes. It’ll add to it.”_

_“That is good to hear.”_

———

“Oh man, Kon, am I glad to see you,” Wally said, clapping his former teammate on the shoulder.

“You won’t be in about 30 seconds,” he replied, jutting his thumb over his shoulder.

Wally peered over in the direction the other boy was pointing and noticed a familiar head of blonde hair sitting on the couch.

“What?”

“Artemis beat you here by about an hour. Said you’d come begging for help on your Vietnamese Lit translation homework and since she wasn’t going to help you…”

“You have got to be kidding me, BABE C’MOOOOOON,” Wally whined.

 _“No chance, boyfriend. Conner, do you have a spare pen around?”_ she answered in Vietnamese.

 _“Not here, but I’ll go find one,”_ he said, turning towards the Cave’s library.

“Artemis, I am begging you. Is this a continuation of my punishment for missing Valentine’s Day last year? ‘Cause I totally spent the rest of that week making it up to you,” he said, kneeling down in front of her as she dug around her bag.

 _“He’s not going to give up, is he?”_ Conner yelled out from the back.

 _“Nope. By the way, I found an pen! You can come back!”_ she called after him.

“Wait! I caught some of that! You told him to come back! See! I am learning!”

———

 _“So can you speak French? ‘Cause you know, ladies dig the French. It IS the language of love,”_ Wally asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

 _“I didn’t exactly learn it for the ladies to dig, but yes, I can speak French,”_ Conner said, narrowing his eyes slightly at his teammate.

_“Great. Let’s hijack the bioship and fly over to Paris for some French food.”_

_“You’re the type that learned the language just so you could correctly order the food, aren’t you?”_

_“Of course he is,”_ Artemis said in French as she walked by the two of them.

———

Conner and Zatanna were at the sink, the former washing the dishes while the latter dried them.

“So… Word along the Cave grapevine is that you can speak a bunch of different languages…” Zatanna asked casually, placing a dried bowl on the drying rack.

“Uh, yeah. It was part of the programming. Why do you ask?”

 _“Just a thought, really,”_ she replies, speaking in Italian.

He looked down at her. She was smiling lightly, but there was sadness in her eyes.

_“My dad and I used to do this thing were we’d speak just in Italian when we were alone. You know, before… Everything. I’d like to hear it again, you know? If you don’t mind?”_

_“Okay. Just… You know, anytime, you want to. I’m here. So’s everyone else.”_

She smiles up at him, saying, _“Thanks, Conner. Don’t take this the wrong way, but… You kind of sound like him. It’s… Comforting.”_

They both went back to washing the dishes when he said, _“You know, Robin can speak some Italian too. Just throwing that out there.”_

 _“Has M’gann been teaching you the art of matchmaking, Conner?”_ she said, blowing some soap suds at him.

———

 _“So how many people here do you think can understand Spanish?”_ Jaime asked, looking around the room.

 _“Nightwing and Robin aren’t here, Artemis is retired, and Miss Martian’s… Preoccupied… So it’s just you and me,”_ Conner said, brows drawing together.

Jaime gulped and said, _“Uh, sorry ‘bout that, bro. But uhh… It’ll-“_

_“You tell me ‘It’ll get better’ and I’ll assign you to laundry duty.”_

_“Right, right. Sorry. Uhhh. Alright. Remember that Appalachian golem we fought the other day?”_

_“Appollaxian.”_

_“Apollonian, whatever, thing is, I did some research.”_

_“… I think you might be my favorite freshman.”_

———

M’gann had this habit of muttering phrases in Martian to him when they were alone. He’d never understand a word of it.

“Are you ever going to tell me what you’re saying?” he asked one morning as they were lounging in bed.

“Nope,” she responded, a tired grin on her lips.

“You’ve been doing it since we were on the Team too… That’s what? 10 years?”

“Just about. You can take 10 more to finally figure it out,” she said, pulling away to stretch in bed.

He sat up in bed, waiting for her to lie back before he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“You should really just tell me.”

“But where’s the fun in that?”

Conner looked down, raising an eyebrow at her question. M’gann rolled her eyes and turned over, meeting him face to face, and established a mind link between the two of them.

She repeated the phrase she had told him since they were on the Team.

_“I’m glad you’re here.”_

The phrase she told him secretly during their breakup.

_“I’m sorry.”_

The phrase she told him when they got back together.

_“I’ve missed you.”_

The phrase she told him when they finally joined the League.

_“I’m so proud of you.”_

The phrase she told him before they went to sleep.

_“I love you.”_

The phrase she told him after they woke up.

_“I’ll never stop loving you.”_

Conner smiled softly at M’gann before pulling her towards him, pressing his lips against hers. She combed her fingers through his hair, pulling him even closer.

When they parted, he asked, “Can I still have the next ten years to figure out any other little Martian phrases you have for me?”

She laid her head against his chest, saying, “Of course. There are plenty I haven’t used. Those were just a few that came to mind.”

“What were some of the others?”

“Ah, those are more appropriate for use at night… But we’ve got to head for the Watchtower in a couple of hours, so no time to waste,” she said, leaning up to kiss his neck before floating off the bed and walking towards the bedroom.

“… That isn’t fair.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from the song "Transatlanticism" by Death Cab For Cutie.


End file.
